A poster in a Market Street bus shelter from "Party Animals," by Andrea Bergen. The Chronicle/Sam Whiting

A poster in a Market Street bus shelter from "Party Animals," by Andrea Bergen. The Chronicle/Sam Whiting

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A poster in a Market Street bus shelter from "Party Animals," by Andrea Bergen. The Chronicle/Sam Whiting

A poster in a Market Street bus shelter from "Party Animals," by Andrea Bergen. The Chronicle/Sam Whiting

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A poster in a Market Street bus shelter from "Party Animals," by Andrea Bergen. The Chronicle/Sam Whiting

A poster in a Market Street bus shelter from "Party Animals," by Andrea Bergen. The Chronicle/Sam Whiting

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Andrea Bergen at work in the mobile art studio on Market Street. The Chronicle/Sam Whiting

Andrea Bergen at work in the mobile art studio on Market Street. The Chronicle/Sam Whiting

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Andrea Bergen at work in the mobile art studio on Market Street. The Chronicle/Sam Whiting

Andrea Bergen at work in the mobile art studio on Market Street. The Chronicle/Sam Whiting

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Mobile Art Studio Opens on Market Street

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With art studio space being tight as it is in San Francisco, collage artist Andrea Bergen trailered a wooden shack up onto the sidewalk on Market and 10th and opened its doors to the public June 15.

She would have lasted there at least until the end of that day, but Bergen has an operating permit, secured by the San Francisco Arts Commission, and Studio 1, as it is called, is as a weekly art residency running through July.

The studio is part of a new Living Innovation Zone a joint program of the San Francisco Planning Department and the Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation that encourages the public to connect with each other and their community through innovative real-world demonstrations. Studio 1, also called Range Studio was designed by David Szlaza, who will serve his own residency here, from June 29 to July 3.

For her week, Bergen is making a variety of site-specific crafts, starting with a pigeon prosthetic. She has tricked out her 65 square feet with curtains, Christmas lights, wall art and chairs for the public to stop by and watch. The first morning she tried brewing up some coffee for her guests, but overloaded her solar power supply and had to discontinue. It provided proof that Studio 1 is off the grid.

There seem to be a steady stream of homeless people interested in Studio 1 as a place to get out of the western wind on Market, but Bergen is patient with them, as she makes art at her desk. When people finally move along she invites them to look for her five poster designs in bus shelters along Market Street. Called “Party Animals,” it shows the finished product of what Bergen has going all day long in Studio 1.
Here is a short video: